Not in the way of David Bowie or Neil Young, who simply try out styles indiscriminately, but in the way of someone who truly loves music and sees no difference performing blues or country, rock or new wave.

Wolf sang all of those -- all in his street-cool style -- in an entertaining hour-and-45-minute of 23 songs Sunday at Sellersville Theater 1894, touching on his J. Geils Band work as well as throughout his solo work, which now stretches seven albums over nearly 30 years.

Peter Wolf, in file photo

The setlist was heavy on Wolf’s last two albums, 2002’s “Sleepless” and 2010’s critically acclaimed “Midnight Souvenirs.” But that was fine, as the songs from those albums alone offered the singer a pretty broad pallet.

“I’m gonna carry you from A to Z,” Wolf told the nearly full crowd of almost 300 in his fast-talking Bronx stage persona.

And indeed he did. Backed by the well-schooled five-man Midnight Travelers, Wolf started with the light rock of “I Don’t Wanna Know” from his last disc, moving and dancing in his three-piece black suit and fedora.

From there he sang slow country shuffle on the last album’s ”Always Asking For You,” which he said he wrote for Johnny Cash and features lap steel guitar; blues on Otis Rush’s “Homework” and a quiet shuffle on “Growing Pain,” both from “Sleepless.”

Later in the show, “Sleepless” also produced the slow country shuffle of “Five O’Clock Angel,” which Wolf said he wrote for playwright Tennessee Williams (he even read Williams’ poem “Gold Tooth Blues”), the old-school country of “Nothing but the Wheel” and the beach shuffle “Oh Marianne.”

Also from the new disc was the exceptional “Tragedy,” to which the crowd clapped along and Wolf danced – as he often did, as if that music fan inside him couldn’t help itself.

Some of the concert’s better moments came when Wolf tapped his other solo albums. He sounded like Van Morison on a lovely “Wasting Time” from 1996’s “Long Line” – playing harmonica against swirling organ. He walked deep into the crowd on the quiet, gentle “Waiting on the Moon” from 1998’s “Fool’s Parade,” and sang to boogie-woogie piano on that album’s “Anything at All.”

Wolf introduced many of his songs with slyly humorous stories of interaction with other music greats such as Muddy Waters, but became serious when talking about Lou Reed, with whose Velvet Underground Wolf toured with his early band The Hallucinations toured. Reed died Sunday at age 71.

Wolf dedicated to him one of the set’s best songs, the new and unreleased “Fun for a While.” Slow and hushed, Wolf sang while seated on a stool and added warm harmonica.

It was disappointing that Wolf underrepresented his best solo albums. His skipped his wonderful debut, “Lights Out,” altogether and from his 1987 sophomore disc “Come As You Are” played only the slow, gentle “Blue Avenue” and the minor hit “Can’t Get Started” instead of the title track.

“Can’t Get Started” still showed how good that music was: Chugging and rambling, it prompted the crowd to start clapping along and Wolf to finally shed his suit coat and vest, 75 minutes into the show.

Wolf played six J. Geils Band songs, but he again skipped its best material, such as “Centerfold” and “Freeze Frame.” And when he played the hit “Love Stinks,” it was changed into an almost unrecognizable bluegrass arrangement.”

The crowd clearly wanted to hear the J. Geils material. When, early on, Wolf sang “Cry One More Time,” he got the biggest hand to that point – and even seemed to sing better.

He saved the other Geils songs for the end, and “Give It To Me” got people up out of their seats to dance in the aisles – and Wolf danced, too. “Looking for a Love” barreled away, and “Please Be There, The Usual Place” was sweet 1960s R&B pop.

There was no formal encore – Wolf never left the stage – but he closed with the best newer song, “It’s Too Late for Me.” It’s a quiet country shuffle Wolf recorded on “Midnight Souvenirs” with Merle Haggard, and the crowd was so intent that Wolf sang part of it unamplified.

But of course, he closed with the expected: J. Geils Band’s “Must Of Got Lost,” showing his best color after a night as a chameleon.

I agree with this review 100%. Peter Wolf has the talent and the material to do a far more energized show than the one we saw at Sellersville. Way too many slow songs and he skipped powerful solo material for far weaker material. The Geils material was loved by all at Sellersville yet left to the end of the show. I love Geils and Peter Wolf but this show was off the mark in my view.

Posted By: Tom | Oct 31, 2013 3:12:16 AM

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JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.